Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams

Robert Peterson

Abstract

Early in the 1920s, the New York Giants sent a scout to watch a young Cuban play for Foster's American Giants, a baseball club in the Negro Leagues. The scout liked what he saw, but was disappointed in the player's appearance. “He was a light brown,” recalled one of Torrienti's teammates, “and would have gone up to the major leagues, but he had real rough hair.” Such was life behind the color line, the unofficial boundary that prevented hundreds of star-quality athletes from playing big-league baseball. This book tells the forgotten story of excluded baseball players, and gives them the recogn ... More

Early in the 1920s, the New York Giants sent a scout to watch a young Cuban play for Foster's American Giants, a baseball club in the Negro Leagues. The scout liked what he saw, but was disappointed in the player's appearance. “He was a light brown,” recalled one of Torrienti's teammates, “and would have gone up to the major leagues, but he had real rough hair.” Such was life behind the color line, the unofficial boundary that prevented hundreds of star-quality athletes from playing big-league baseball. This book tells the forgotten story of excluded baseball players, and gives them the recognition they were so long denied. Reconstructing the old Negro Leagues from contemporary sports publications, accounts of games in the black press, and through interviews with the men who actually played the game, the book brings to life the period that stretched from shortly after the Civil War to the signing of Jackie Robinson in 1947. We watch as the New York Black Yankees and the Philadelphia Crawfords take the field, look on as the East-West All-Star line-ups are announced, and listen as the players themselves tell of the struggle and glory that was black baseball. In addition to these accounts, the book includes yearly Negro League standings and an all-time register of players and officials, making the book a treasure trove of baseball information and lore. The book reminds us that what was often considered the “Golden Age” of baseball was also the era of Jim Crow.

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